ABSTRACT
This chapter explores in detail one of the types of street trade in Mexico City: the tianguis. Street trade is only one part of the complex reality of public space where a fundamental issue is put into play; the right to work and the imperative to engage in a functioning economic activity. Street traders are social agents in a conflictive environment politicised by the use, distribution and maintenance of a scarce resource, the street. The tianguis take place any day of the week in any street or neighbourhood of the city in semi-fixed positions, with metal frame structures roofed with plastic sheeting of different colours which identify their membership of a particular organisation. The legal framework that has regulated the tianguis since 2004 has been modified several times in order to ascertain the number and characteristics of the workers and their organisations.
